Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Productivity, Google, Freeware, How-Tos, iPhone

One of the hardest aspects of managing email is keeping track of sent messages where a reply is expected. Do you have this problem? I know I do. Some of the people I correspond with are absolutely reliable, and I know that if I send them something, I’ll get a reply within 24 hours and often sooner. But some of my other regular correspondents are not so reliable.

At all.

It’s really frustrating.

Luckily, if you’re a Gmail user, there is a very simply method for keeping track of messages where you are anticipating a reply. You see it each day, and you might even be using it for something else.

What am I talking about?

The Starred attribute. With a single key or button press, Gmail allows you to add a star to a message which prominently appears whenever that message or thread is in view.

This process is incredibly simple, but effective. Now, I should first point out that starring an email is for all intents and purposes the same as labeling a message with any arbitrary label. But I think stars work superior as an expected response reminder than a label would. So follow along with me and see if you don’t come to the same conclusion.

Continue reading Using Gmail’s Starred items to track expected replies - Emailers Anonymous

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Filed under: Developer, Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity

Panic Inc.’s Coda, the one-window web development wonder for Mac OS X, has just been updated to version 1.5. Coda is a great program, designed to put source editing, FTP, CSS and command line access all in one application. It’s a great, great application for developers and is definitely one of my most-used applications.

With version 1.5, Coda adds Subversion to its tool-belt, which is sure to make many, many users extremely happy. Git might be the new hotness, but seeing as graphical SVN clients are just now starting to trickle onto OS X, this is great news to any Mac developer.

In typical Coda-style, Subversion access is clean and simple to manage. Source-control is set-up on a per-site basis. If your existing site already has a SVN directory, Coda detects it automatically. You can also enter in a repository’s URL and login details to checkout a copy of a repository if no local copy exists.

In addition to Subversion support, Coda 1.5 also boasts a much-improved find and replace system. The find and replace command can now span all open files, files in a directory, or files in the local root site. In the past, this was one of my only problems with Coda — I had to search through each file to find a specific line of code, instead of being able to search across a group of files. This is great for updating an image directory or changing a file name across a bunch of PHP or CSS files.

The “Books” menu has also received a large update: support for custom books. Coda’s Books feature works by connecting the user to a web page housing a book’s complete text. Out of the box, Coda comes with access to a CSS, HTML, PHP and Javascript manual. When writing anything in those languages or formats, you can also refer to the reference books to look up commands or syntax rules. This can be very handy. Now, with the custom book feature, you can add other on the internet books. For instance, I added the Django Book to my bookshelf so that I have the ability to have easy access to it anytime I’m working on a site that uses that framework.

Coda’s Clips feature has also been improved with support for groupings, importing, and exporting. There are many other improvements (check out the release notes) that make an already great program even superior.

Coda 1.5 is a free update for all existing Coda users. You can download a 15-day trial from Panic’s site. Pricing is $99 for new users, $85 for existing Transmit 3 customers. Coda requires OS X 10.4+.

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Filed under: Windows, Productivity, Freeware

With the number of laptops I reinstall Windows on every day constantly on the rise, I’ve been looking for applications that might help boost my pitiful short-term memory - for some reason, my boss frowns upon me playing Brain Age at work.

And since 6AM isn’t the ideal time to be shouting at something in my home (toddler, wife, etc.), I need something a bit more quiet to help me practice. Speed Read may be just the app for the job.

The idea is very simple: display the number of words you select at a specified interval to improve your ability to recall groups of words and maintain attention to the subject. Speed Read will display text from any text file and comes packaged with 51 sample files.

You can, of course, add your own, which is a good idea. If you’re serious about practicing, you may as well be reading something you enjoy. As your skill improves, increase the number of words displayed and turn up the speed to keep the exercise challenging.

It works quite well, and after sticking with it for about a week I definitely notice an improvement already in my ability to read swiftly - and remember.

[ via Softpedia ]

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